Rare holiday moment: Hanukkah and Thanksgiving together

During Hanukkah, students at the Lubavitch Yeshiva-International School for Chabad Leadership in Oak Park will drive near malls and in Jewish neighborhoods with electronic Menorah atop their cars as a way to spread the message of Hanukkah.

Rabbi Mendel Stein, development director at the Lubavitch Yeshiva-International School for Chabad Leadership in Oak Park, said Hanukkah has only occurred on Thanksgiving four times since the 1800s.

Ariella and Mikey Skoczylas of Southfield will gather this week with family to celebrate a rare occasion — Hanukkah and Thanksgiving taking place at the same time.

“We’re having turkey but instead of just sweet potatoes, we’re having sweet potato latkes — and instead of pumpkin pie, we’ll have donuts,” said Ariella, 25.

Hanukkah — which begins the evening of Nov. 27 and ends Dec. 5 — has only fallen during Thanksgiving four times since the 1800s, according to Rabbi Mendel Stein, development director with Lubavitch Yeshiva-International School for Chabad Leadership in Oak Park.

“If no one changes Thanksgiving’s date, the next time will be 2070 and then 2165,” Stein said.

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The Festival of Lights, or Hanukkah (sometimes written as Chanukkah), is a Jewish holiday celebrated for eight days and nights.

Since the Jewish calendar is lunar based, every year the first day of Hanukkah falls on a different day – usually sometime between late November and late December, according to judaism.about.com.

The holiday celebrates two miracles, said Stein.

A small group of Jewish resistance fighters, the Maccabees, overcame a stronger Greek army near Jerusalem more than 2,000 years ago.

“Then when they came back to the temple to light the candelabra, they could only find one bottle of oil, which normally lasts a day,” said Stein.

“It would have taken eight days to get new oil, but this one bottle lasted eight days straight.”

Those are the eight days of Hanukkah celebrated each year, he said.

Families bring out the Menorah, a seven-branched lampstand which is designed in a multitude of styles.

Ariella Skoczylas said she and her husband are working on a homemade family Menorah with her children, Aron, 3, and J, 2.

The Skoczylas’ Menorah is made of wood and painted by the children.

“We’re going to glue candles to it,” said Ariella, who said the children will take it to a competition at their school, Yeshivat Akiva in Southfield.

Rabbi Stein notes that because Hanukkah urges people to thank God for blessings, Hanukkah and Thanksgiving “go well together,” he said.

People are also encouraged to eat food fried in oil, symbolic of the Maccabees’ oil.

People also give money gifts to children and play with the spinning top, called a dreidel.

“Hanukkah remind us to look for hidden miracles every day,” said Ariella.